MALI: Archaeologists studying Durrington Walls – where the builders of Stonehenge lived – found cheese was offered up in ceremonies
British cheese has always had a heavenly reputation but to our ancestors it really was food for the gods.
Archaeologists have discovered that the builders of Stonehenge offered up cheese, milk and yoghurt to their deities during ancient ceremonies, keeping ‘impure’ meat for feasting amongst themselves.
Tribes across the world are known to give similar gifts, believing dairy to be symbolic of purity because of the clean white colour of fresh milk.
Researchers at the University of York and University College London studied the eating habits of people living at Durrington Walls, a late Neolithic monument and settlement where the people who built Stonehenge probably lived.
Analysis of residues in pottery and animal bones showed evidence of organised feasts and an unexpected pattern in how foods were distributed and shared across the site.
The team found that pots deposited in residential areas were used for cooking meat, such as pork and beef, whereas pottery from the ceremonial spaces was used predominantly for dairy.
The archaeologists believe that it demonstrates that milk, yoghurts and cheeses were perceived as fairly exclusive foods only consumed by a select few and offered up to the gods in worship.
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